Premier John Brumby today announced the winners of $500,000 worth of grants to be given out to Victorian Artists and music industry businesses to help kick them up a notch.
Melbourne musician Dan Kelly was on hand to share his experiences of how grants have helped him."I wouldn't have been able to do the record without it," he told the crowd. "I was able to hire a publicist. I was able to hire someone to do our website up, which is a really big component. I've started blogging. I started when I made the record and I'm going to follow through to either failure or success.
"Also to be able to present to radio and tour posters and posters for the record and to do all the artwork, all of that stuff was paid for by VicRocks, which I'm really thankful about."
After Kelly played his song 'Bindi Irwin Apocalypse Jam', an awkward looking Peter Batchelor, Minister for the Arts joked "I'm glad you didn't play your other classic 'Drunk on Election Night'. Leave that to us on the 27th of November this year okay?"
Mr. Bumby recalled his own experience of putting out an album, saying "I am myself of course a budding artist, as you know. Some years ago I did put out a CD, it was called the MP's Quartet Minus One. Did anybody hear that? Oh look at that, two people!"
He said "We have taken a view here in Victoria that we want to build Melbourne as the creative capital of Australia."
In the 2010 budget, there is room for $7 million worth of arts grants, with $500,000 announced today. They include 16 grants for "music career building", 17 grants for "music touring", 4 grants for "strategic music industry partnerships" and $150,000 towards the Australasian World Music Expo to be held in Yarraville in November.
For more information on how to apply for a grant, head to the Arts Victoria website.
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